Method of drawing wire



P 1934- D. D. BUCHANAN 1,972,473

METHOD OF DRAWING WIRE Filed Dec. 2, 1953 ZSheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

firm: M

ATTORNEY.

Patented Sept. 4, 1934 UNITED STATES METHOD OF DRAWING WIRE David D. Buchanan, Massillon, Ohio, assignor to Union Drawn Steel Company, Massillon, Ohio, a

corporation of Pennsylvania Application December 2, 1933, Serial No. 700,678

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a method of making steel wire and has for its principal object the simplification of the handling and storage of the stock from the time it leaves the rod mill until it is fed into the wire block.

It is especially adapted for use in conjunction with the process disclosed in Ellison Patent No. 1,859,585, and relates to the handling of the rod from the time it leaves the pickling tanks until it is fed into the wire block, whereas the Ellison process relates to the handling of the wire after it leaves the wire block.

In the steel industry the term wire" applies to steel that has been first hot rolled and then cold drawn and may be any desired shape or size ,in cross section, such as round, square, rectangular, hexagonal, etc., and the term rod applies to steel that has been hot rolled and is not very accurate as to size and shape. Steel wire, then, is steel rod that has been drawn, when it is cold, through a drawing die.

When the rod is drawn through the drawing die, it is wound into coils, and then is used in various different ways. In the making of bolts, rivets, etc., it is fed directly from the coils into the machine. For other uses, it may be first formed into bars or rods of various length by running it through a wire straightener.

This method effects a large saving in labor, greatly reduces the floor space necessary for making wire by previously known methods, and eliminates the congestion around the wire blocks.

It has been installed in one of the plants of the Union Drawn- Steel Company and has increased the output of a battery of wire blocks more than 30% and decreased the labor necessary for feeding the wire blocks more than By the old method a battery of wire blocks, with three men feeding them, drew 1800 tons of wire per month. With mymeth0d, the same battery of wire blocks drew 2400 tons of wire per month, with only one man feeding them.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a wire mill showing the various mechanisms and operations used in the making of wire by my method; Fig. 2 is a vertical section of one type of reel which may be used in the practice of my process; Fig. 3 is a plan view of the reel shown in Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a side elevation of a wire block and turntable, showing a loaded reel mounted on the turntable and rod being drawn therefrom through the drawing die, and wound upon the drawing reel which, together with the drawing die, forms the wire block.

Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates the last of a series of rolls of a rod mill, by which a heated steel billet, usually 1 inches square and 30 feet long, is rolled into rod of the desired size. When the rod leaves'the rolls, it passes through a guide 60 2, and is wound into coils 3 on any suitable coiling device 4.

The coils of rod 3 are then pickled, in any approved manner, in the pickling tanks indicated at 5.

After the coils of rod have been pickled, they are removed from the pickling tanks, and assembled on reels 6, a plurality of coils being placed one upon the other on each reel.

The reels, with the coils of rod thereon, are then placed in a drying oven'l, until they are thoroughly dried, which usually takes about three hours.

From the dryer, the loaded, reelsare either transported directly to the wire block, indicated generally at 8, to be drawn into wire, or they are stored at 9, until they are needed.

Generally, when the rod is to be stored, the loaded reels are transported directly from the pickling tanks to storage and the rod'allowed to dry in storage. Of course, the drying time in storage is considerably longer than in the drying oven, but when the rod is to be stored for any length of time the drying time is immaterial.

The common practice is to roll and pickle a large quantity of various sizes of rod and store it until it is needed. The required amount is then taken from storage and run through the wire block to form wire.

.With my method, each reel 6 has placed thereon only one size of rod. Then, when a certain size wire is desired, a reel of rod of the corresponding size is taken from storage to the wire block, usually by overhead travelling hoists, although if desired the reels could be transported by industrial trucks or' the like.

Due to the fact that a number of coils of rod are placed one upon the other upon the reels, considerably less floor space is needed for storage. Also the wire blocks can be placed closer together as it is not necessary to pile coils of rod adjacent each wire block. This eliminates all the congestion in the storage room and around the wire blocks, that is incident to all previously known methods of handling rod.

The reel illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3 is made from rectangular bar stock, and comprises a base ring 9, from which four equally spaced frame members extendinwardly and then upwardly and are all no joined together at the top as indicated at 11. One or more reinforcing rings 12 are fastened to the frame members between the base and the upper end of the reel.

The wire block generally denoted by the numeral 8 is illustrated in Fig. 4, and comprises a base 13 having a drawing die 14, and coiling mechanism 15 mounted thereon. The coiling mechanism 15 is driven by suitable power mechanism mounted in the base 13, and functions to draw the rod through-the die 14.

A turntable comprising a flat base 16 having abody portion 17 extending upwardly from the center thereof is positioned adjacent the wire block.

In operation, a loaded reel 6 is placed on the turntable, the body portion 17 of the turntable extending into. the reel, and the rod is drawn from the reel through the drawing die 14 by the coiling mechanism 15. When all the coils of rod on the reel have been drawn off, the empty reel is removed from the turntable and another loaded reel is placed thereon and the operation repeated.

As will be seen from the foregoing, the coils of rod are not handled individually, or by hand, after they leave the pickling tank. Furthermore, it is not necessary, as in previous methods, to stop the operation of the wire block after each coil of rod is exhausted, but only after a whole reel of coils of rod has been used. This, naturally, increases the output of the wire block. Thus it will be seen that I have invented a new method of drawing wire, which accomplishes the aforesaid objects of the invention in a simple and eflicient manner.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. The method of making wirecomprising: winding rod into coils; pickling the coils of rod; assembling a plurality of pickled coils of rodone upon another upon a reel; drying the coils upon the reel; transporting the reel with the coils of rod thereon to a wire block; rotatably supporting the reel with the coils of rod thereon adjacent the wire block, independently of the transporting means; drawing oil the rod of the coils in succession from the reel with rotation thereof and feedingit into the wire block.

2. The method of making \vire comprising: winding rod into coils; pickling the coils of rod; assembling a plurality of pickled coils of red one upon another upon a reel; storing the coils of rod upon the reel; transporting the reel with the coils of rod thereon to a wire block; rotatably supporting the reel with the coils of rod thereon adjacent the wire block, independently of the transporting means; drawing off the rod of the coils in succession from the reel with rotation thereof and feeding it into the wire block.

3. The method of making wire comprising: winding rod into coils; pickling the coils of rod; assembling a plurality of pickled coils of rod one upon another upon a reel; transporting the reel with the coilsof rod thereon to a wire block; rotatably supporting the reel with the coils of rod thereon adjacent the wire block, independently of the transporting means; drawing off the rod of the coils in succession from the reel with rotation thereof and feeding it into the wire block.

' DAVID D. BUCHANAN. 

